This is the diary of the journey of one beautiful soul - a Quarter horse mare named "River" - from starvation and the kill pens of Fallon, Nevada, to redemption in the hands of the kind people of Safe Haven Horse Rescue, and then, hopefully, with the help of Lesley Deutsch and Jessi Morrill of Blue Fountain Farm, on to become a Cowboy Dressage star.

Saturday, February 28, 2015

River's First Pedicure Session

Before I start with River's progression here at Blue Fountain Farm, I want to reflect back on how far she has come since she was taken from the kill pens in Fallon. I was looking at her images on the Safe Haven Horse Rescue site, and discovered that Jessi and I brought her here one year and one day from when she arrived there - when her journey in life took it's first good turn. I can't say enough positive words about all those who were a part of her rescue, Marjorie, Shirley, Linda, and whoever else may have been involved - I still have so much to learn about her past. This is what she looked like the day after she arrived:

It just kills me to see how thin her poor neck is in these two images.....

And how ratty and matted she looks in the image below............but you can still see in her eyes the sweet soul that she is - inspite of all she had been through ............

But, take a look at the image below to see what a change Safe Haven brought about in her by last summer - sleek, shiny, and a very healthy weight on her. The images that we are putting up now from here at BFF show a somewhat rough, winter coated horse, not unlike most other horses this time of year - but underneath that she is still happy and healthy. She, like all our other equine friends this time of year, are shedding out their coats, and I look forward to seeing that sleek, shiny coat again that you see in River below.

So, now on the River's 5th day at Blue Fountain Farm - her first "pedicure" session. Again, I can't believe how much she is letting us, still strangers to her in a strange place, ask her to do. I would hazard to guess that she has never put her foot on a hoof stand before, and, though she did let us do it for awhile, it wasn't really her cup of tea ..........

It seemed best to go on to Plan "B", but first she needed a little rest and some smooching from Jessi.

She was much happier with Plan "B", which was to put her up next to a wall, and she tried her little heart out...... first Steve did some paring,.................

And we got a little bit done with the nippers..................

But, as you can see below, that was a little more than she could handle. However, even though we were pushing her a little, she never blew up, never tried to run through us, or kicked, or did anything nasty - she just told us her quarter was running out, and can we try this another day?

We just asked her to hold her foot up one more time, then she got some loving and soothing.............. thanks so much to Jessi's dad Steve for being such a calming influence on our River, and for offering to help with her needs.

After her session, Jessi gave River her favorite thing (besides carrots), a grooming session. That was a big relief to River....................

River has been through a lot of changes in her short life, but her curiosity is still there - she thought for a short minute about going in to the tack room, but I think it looked a little too much like a trailer from her perspective!

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Photography

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About Me

I train horses, I educate people who belong to those horses, and I capture images of both of the above, and more, through the camera lens. I run Blue Fountain Farm (www.bluefountainfarm.com) - a 40 acre horse boarding, training and lesson ranch in the Gold Country Foothills of California. I also have Blue Fountain Photography - which is mostly equine photography, but if you visit the site - www.bluefountainphotography.smugmug.com - you will see that I do more than just horses.